


answering a salty siren call

by OneSmartChicken



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, M/M, Mutual Pining, Supernatural Elements
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-06
Updated: 2019-01-06
Packaged: 2019-09-28 17:54:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,573
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17187644
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OneSmartChicken/pseuds/OneSmartChicken
Summary: Yeah only an idiot wouldn't have at least a little crush on Bucky, and Tony really wasn't an idiot.





	answering a salty siren call

**Author's Note:**

  * For [GenericUserHere](https://archiveofourown.org/users/GenericUserHere/gifts).



> ...Suffice to say I was basically dead for about two weeks (the two weeks I'd specifically intended to write the last like, not even fourth) and then had a lot of technical difficulties like my internet being down for three days and office suite being a giant bitch and then for some reason it won't keep my formatting so -quiet sobbing in between coughs-
> 
> ANYWAY this was going to be way long, thus the random supernatural elements and hints of significant worldbuilding, but I kept straying too far from the prompt and--oof. So some day I may revisit this universe and run around, but I really hope you enjoy this anyway!

Tony dropped into the seat beside Bucky without a pause in his loud argument with Rhodey. They'd been trying to get Dum-E to make a smoothie for weeks, but the bot still put something inedible in a solid half of the time. At this rate Tony was going to have to make a whole other bot just to tell him when the smoothies were safe--he couldn't just not have Dum-E make smoothies of course. The bot would be heartbroken.

"Hey nerds," Nat broke in at a convenient lull in the argument, though she let them go for a while; a lot longer than she wouldn't a year ago, when they started sitting together after school.

"Hey Nat," they said, nearly in unison, and Tony turned to grin at Bucky.

"Hey Bucky Boo," he said with a nudge to the other boy's shoulder. "Good day? How's the fuzzy wuzzies?" He nudged Bucky again. The full moon was on a Sunday this cycle, still a few days off, but Bucky had proven sensitive in the past. Tony found the whole thing baffling; sirens and the other sea folk weren't nearly so effected by any of their cycles, if they had one at all.

Tony figured he got off easy with just needing to get full wet every few days.

"I'm fine," Bucky said, grinning back. "How's your kid?" Tony elbowed him, rolling his eyes to hide his blush.

"Dum-E's great, he only put oil in two of the smoothies today," he boasted anyway, unable to resist his own pride. His bot was so great though, honestly. "That's three totally edible smoothies."

"Edible?" Rhodey demanded. "One of them was literally nothing but lychee and activated charcoal. Why do you even have charcoal for him?"

And they were off again, bickering about a bot they both thought was pretty much the best thing ever, swapping off insulting and praising Dum-E, sounding like two proud parents gossiping about their own weird kid.

Tony only tuned back in to the rest of the group when Nat burst into her ridiculous snort-laughing, shaking and bent over with it, tears in her eyes. Bucky's glower told him pretty much all he needed to know.

"Aw, is she picking on you?" he teased, bumping their shoulders together. Bucky's ears were a little red, enough that he kinda wished he'd been listening to hear how she embarrassed him. It was no mean feat to make Bucky blush; he didn't have much in the way of shame. It was part of why they'd bonded so easily.

Nat buried her face in Clint's shoulder, since Pepper was doing homework and showing no inclination to support her girlfriend's giggle fit. Clint was asleep and thus couldn't protest.

It was Steve that made Tony think maybe he really should've been listening. The skinny changeling was kind of--not meeting his eyes? Tony frowned at him. Had he done something? Again? He'd really thought they were past avoiding each other when one of them fucked up though.

Bucky jostled him, giving him a slightly strained smile when Tony abandoned his attempt to stare Steve into spitting out whatever was bothering him.

"It's fine," Bucky said. Tony smiled at him, and the strained smile shifted, turning into that soft little smile Bucky gave him sometimes. Tony wasn't really sure what it meant, just that it made his chest ache, and he felt a little floaty and warm and happy. He really liked that smile. It felt like he was seeing it more and more lately too, so that was nice.

Rhodey let out a sudden, weird noise that was either a laugh or a medical condition. Tony whipped towards him, already starting to rise, only to find it was in fact a laugh. Blotchy with attempts to hold out in, Rhodey leaned his head into his hand, stifling his wheezy snickers.

"Uhh, what the fuck, honerbear?" Tony frowned at him, even as he rubbed at the knot of worry under his sternum. Sirens were notorious for "intense emotional responses," and while he was technically only half siren, his mother's genes were strong, a lot stronger than his dad's weird mix (who even heard of being a quarter Folk and a quarter kelpie, on the same side?)

Rhodey looked up at the tone in his voice, instantly on alert. They'd been best friends for six years, ever since Rhodey took a year to study at a mer school in 6th grade and wound up adopting the energetic little siren who liked to yell about science. If Tony sounded worried, Rhodey noticed; they both noticed a lot about each other, more than pretty much anyone else did, although Pepper was right up there really. Tony's one friend since before either of them were even in school, Pepper was just as much his best friend, just--in a different way.

Catching his eye, Rhodey gave him a small, gentle smile, a quiet little 'I'm alright.' Tony settled, trusting Rhodey. He gave him a look though, still wanting to know the why of that noise, but Rhodey just shrugged at him, smile morphing into a teasing grin. Letting out a huff, Tony turned pointedly towards Bucky, giving Rhodey his back.

"So Bucky, what's new with you?" he asked, wiggling his eyebrows and ignoring Rhodey's laugh.

'New' turned out to be Reggie and Regina--yes really--a couple from another school who were apparently feeling adventurous. Bucky seemed to incite a desire for 'adventure' in most people. Not that Tony could blame any of them; Bucky was blue-touched silver eyes, full lips, stubble he should've been too young for on a jawline that could make gods jealous, all atop a solid body, muscular to a fault, and on top of all that was a killer sense of humor, a smile like spring, and intelligence that was nothing to sneeze at even if Bucky tended to pretend otherwise. Yeah only an idiot wouldn't have at least a little crush on Bucky, and Tony really wasn't an idiot.

He'd liked Bucky since pretty much day one, when Bucky caught him after class to compliment him on a clever bit of magic know-how, and he'd been funny and charming and easy and they'd had lunch together and then Bucky'd let himself get pulled away by two giggling girls who definitely didn't have studying in mind. Tony'd gotten used to it, the stabbing pain in his chest and the ache in his belly and the times when his eyes would get hot and he had to make himself scarce and preferably distracted.

It was worth it, for Bucky grinning at him, bumping shoulders, high fives and arms over shoulders and the occasional hug when Bucky's wolf tendencies ran towards cuddly. Besides, everyone said you got over crushes eventually.

(Well everyone on land said that. He wasn't all siren, he told himself firmly. His mother wasn't always right. He'd get over it. Definitely.)

Bucky told him about Reggie's big hands, nervous and cold, and that he kissed like he could breathe through his ears, while Regina was all eagerness and biting and sensitive breasts. Tony had never been subtle about being bi--it was weird how stupid humans could be about it--and Bucky liked to overshare. Steve and Pepper and Clint were all bi too, but Steve got embarrassed, Pepper scared him, and Clint--actually Tony didn't know why not Clint.

He didn't mind. No really. Sure he was jealous but not the worst. At least Bucky was happy, even if it wasn't with Tony, and it was that much more time to spend with Bucky's attention on him.

Bucky was leaning in really close, so close Tony could smell the bacon on his breath. Bucky had a terrible sense of personal space, which mostly worked in Tony's favor, although their friend group had a hilarious reputation; Bucky, Tony, Rhodey, and Clint were all cuddly thanks to genetics, and their friends had adapted. Landers were weird about platonic cuddles.

And it was all lovely and grand and then the bell rang and they headed for buses or cars as applicable, and Reggie and Regina pulled up so Bucky could jump in.

Rhodey caught him by the shoulders, steering him towards the car they shared. "C'mon buddy," he said with a sigh. "How about some popcorn and a terrible movie?"

Tony silently accepted that tonight was going to be a crying one. Sometimes being a siren was kinda shitty.

 

 

"Was that him?" Regina demanded, sitting backwards on her knees to look out the back window, still somehow belted in. Bucky covered his face, sliding down the passenger seat with a groan. This was the problem with making friends with the people you casually fucked; they got nosy.

"With the glasses?" Reggie asked, no less eager, though he had the decency to keep his eyes on the road.

"You said he's a siren? Gods I can believe it," Regina sighed, finally sitting down like a normal person, only to immediately unbuckle the second they were off school property. Regina didn't believe in seat belts in the back seat.

"Hott, with two t's," Reggie agreed.

"Thicc with two c's," Regina countered.

"I could just go home," Bucky mused.

"But like in a lil baby deer way. Did you see those eyes, babe?" Regina ignored him.

"You can't go home, Bucky!" Reggie said. "We're going on a date."

"You know I'm not actually your boyfriend, right?" Bucky asked. "I never had to put up with this shit from my other fuck buddies."

They took him on a date anyway, dragging him to a park for ice cream of all things, then back to Regina's since her parents weren't home, and by the time they deigned to drop him off it was getting dark out. Becca met him at the top of the stairs with uncanny timing, giving him a judgmental look. She was thirteen and a brat, and Bucky couldn't wait until she started bringing dates home so he could embarrass her for a change.

"Who was it this time?" she asked snootily, like she wasn't standing there holding a bag of garbage.

"Gina and Reg," he said, enjoying her disgusted look. Becca didn't really care about people having a lot of sex; it was the idea of her brother having sex at all that garnered the ick response. It was kind of hilarious.

"Are they super old again?" She side-eyed him with irritable concern. Jeez, she catches him with a college kid one time.

"No," he said, rolling his eyes. "They're my age. Not that it's any of your business. Can I go inside now?"

"Steve said to tell you he got a new game," she announced. He moved so she could stomp down the stairs past him, unconvinced she wouldn't just shove him if he stayed in the way. Teenage girls were scary, especially little sisters.

He trotted the rest of the way up, and went inside to let his parents know he was home, steal a roll, and get permission to go next door.

The Rogers were actually two doors down, diagonal almost. Ms. Rogers had told him to stop bothering to knock when him and Steve were ten, so he walked right in, unsurprised to find Steve on the floor, eyes glued to the tv.

Steve didn't even look up, just held up a second controller and scooted over so Bucky could join him on the floor.

They made it through four levels before Steve said, "So, when are you gonna ask Tony out?" Bucky's character ran off a cliff and Steve stole the win, nodded at his victory, then turned to give Bucky a look. It was a lot like the look Steve'd given him back when Bucky started sleeping with about as many people as he could, the look that said I love you but you're the biggest idiot I've ever met, which seemed unfair. Most of their friends were categorically bad at romance; Clint and Nat had tried to date once, for gods' sake.

"What the fuck, Steve," Bucky demanded, glaring. Steve added a level of unimpressed to his stare.

"You should ask Tony out, Bucky," Steve said sternly. "You know he'd say yes."

"I really do not know that," Bucky said.

"Right," Steve rolled his eyes. "He'd be good for you, Buck."

"Tony'd be good for anyone he liked," he grumbled, glaring as his wolf got uppity, not sure it liked Steve's implications. Steve stared a second, then whacked him on the knee.

"Of course he would, he's great, but it's you he likes!" Steve snapped. Steve was pretty much human, but he had a knack that was probably magic for noticing things like Bucky's wolf getting offended or Sam having a desperate craving for fish or that time Clint had a concussion but didn't feel like telling anyone. "He's my friend too, jerk. If you're not gonna ask him out though, I'm telling Nat so she can find him someone who'll take care of him. I just thought you'd be good for him too!"

Bucky fidgeted, silent. Steve sighed and started them on the next level.

Before he left, Bucky muttered, "Don't tell Nat," and bolted before Steve could reply.

 

 

Of course the next day, Tony was unusually early, there outside the school by the time Steve and Bucky walked up the steps. Bucky called him without a thought, as always; he was one of Bucky's best friends, why wouldn't he call out?

Tony turned at the sound of his name; though mid-word and focused on Victor and Reed it was automatic, even before he consciously recognized the voice. Distracted, his mouth curved into a wide grin, and he took a moment to beam at Bucky, feeling warm and fond and content as he rarely was. Then Reed started to talk and Tony wasn't done so Tony whipped back around, talking louder to cut off Reed. The guy was a genius but by the tides did Tony want to fight him sometimes--cage match style.

Bucky froze. His mouth fell open, and he stared in shock at Tony, already turned away again but the effects of his smile lingering. And that smile--that smile. Tony had a good smile, Bucky was painfully aware of that. In fact Tony had many different good smiles, all of them uniquely attractive. His Rhodey smile was particularly painful, like watching the sun peek out on a cloudy day. He'd thought that was The smile, the brightest one, the best and worst.

He was wrong. This was so much worse--better?--something. If the Rhodey smile was a cloudy day sun, this one had been a solar flare, and an utterly devastating one at that. Bucky's heart was pounding so hard he could barely hear himself think. He'd known Tony was attractive, he'd known he kind of liked him, he'd been thinking about doing something about it.

Now Bucky was thinking about shoving the other kids away, about picking Tony up and carrying him to the nearest more-or-less private place, holding him up and kissing him senseless and feeling every inch of golden skin, and then tasting it for good measure. And above all that he was thinking, I'm in love with Tony Stark. Shit.

Steve jabbed his bony shoulder into Bucky's, garnering a jump and hissed breath. That hurt, dammit; Steve had bones like knives.

They glared at each other in silent communication. Bucky was inclined to run for the hills. Steve was too stubborn for his own good.

Growling, Bucky walked over to the arguing trio. He brushed against Tony, who immediately shifted to make space. To Bucky's relief he didn't go too far, close enough that when he swayed forward a bit Tony wound up almost leaning on him. Tony smelled like cars and electricity and brine, with an undercurrent of something warm and earthy and inherently Tony. It was a weird scent, nothing that should have been especially pleasant, but Bucky wished he could bottle it.

The wolf had been restless all night after Steve's stupid comments, but as his nose filled with that familiar homey smell, it finally settled down. At which point Bucky knew he was utterly fucked. Weres didn't let their animals decide everything. Common methodology had them dating the same way humans did, just getting to know someone who appealed, and hoped their animal side would warn up to them. If they never did then oh well, the animal could deal; plenty of people dated and married and had long lasting loving relationships with people their animal was apathetic to.

But someone his wolf liked? That was another matter. It was hard to just discredit that kind of comfort, the kind that was more than bone deep--soul deep, maybe.

"Bucky?"

Bucky tuned back into the world, not having realized he'd even tuned out in the first place, to find Tony standing close, peering up at him with a worried look.

"You okay?" Tony asked when Bucky met his eyes. He laid a hand on Bucky's arm. Bucky caught Tony's hand in his own, reckless and impulsive, and could have purred at the immediate pinkening of Tony's cheeks.

"I'm fine," he said. "Just thinkin. What's up?"

"You zoned out, huh?" Tony said with a grin, worry easing some. "The bell rang."

"Oops?" Bucky shrugged. So the bell rang, whatever. There were more important things to worry about.

 

 

Bucky walked up to Nat at her locker. He'd never seen her actually open the locker, but she stopped by it between periods anyway. Mysteries of Nat.

She didn't look at him, tapping away at her phone instead, probably texting Pepper, but he had no doubt she knew he was there.

"I'm gonna ask out Tony," he blurted out. Her tapping paused. Slowly, she raised her head and started at him. He waited.

"Don't fuck it up," she said, but in an encouraging way. Like she didn't really think he would, and maybe even thought it was a good idea. He grinned at her, bouncing a little as nerves turned more to excitement.

He was going to ask out Tony. The spunky little siren who waved off a curse like it was a mosquito and then gave a lecture on why the curse was poorly designed and the caster had done bad and should feel bad. The boy who never minded when Bucky invaded his personal space, who built a robot with his best friend and cried about it, who smiled and made the world brighter every time.

That boy.

 

 

Tony rubbed sleepy eyes, grimacing at bits of grit, gathered during an impromptu nap at his desk. He had to call his parents when he got home, and then there was a delicious slice of swordfish with his name on it, but afterwards he was going to crash and crash hard.

First he had to wait for the stupid bus.

Rhodey slung an arm around him, grinning even though he'd been up all night too. Bastard.

"Why didn't we just buy a car?" Tony whined, though he didn't resist snuggling into Rhodey and his mostly human warmth. Rhodey's family had a lot of prophet types, but Mama Rhodes always just called them that, "mostly human," and everyone else took their cues from her.

"Because, Tones," Rhodey said and ruffled his hair. "You wanted the authentic human high school experience. Normal high schoolers ride the bus."

"That is patently not true," Tony disagreed, looking pointedly at the student parking lot.

"And I don't trust you in a car," Rhodey added shamelessly.

Tony tried to attack him, but Rhodey was more awake and was very used to Tony; he jumped away, laughing at Tony's growl.

Tony started to give chase, and bumped right into Bucky as he moved suddenly between them. Tony jumped back, only to get caught on Bucky again, this time as the were's arms rose, looping loosely around Tony. Leaning against the arms, Tony blinked curiously up at his friend.

"Buck?" he asked, head tilted. Bucky grinned.

"Hey Tony," he said. And then he ducked his head, just a few inches, the tiny bit of space between them, and pressed a quick kiss to his open mouth. Tony fisted his hands in Bucky's stupid leather jacket, gaping at him, his face gone immediately pink.

"Sorry, couldn't resist," Bucky murmured. He cupped Tony's cheek, but didn't let himself kiss him again. Not yet. "Meant to talk first."

" Talk about what?" he asked, high and breathless.

"Hey Tony," Bucky said, heart soaring even as nerves half choked him, because Tony was starry eyed and soft and suddenly he was so sure, but what if he was wrong anyway? "Would you go out with me? Like in a date? As boyfriends?"

"Reggie and Regina?" Tony asked.

"Kept telling me to just ask out the boy I like already," Bucky admitted sheepishly. Tony squeaked, then he was surging up, wrapping his arms around Bucky's neck. And it wasn't really a good kiss, inexperienced and sloppy and sharp, and it was hands down the best kiss Bucky had ever had.

"That a yes?" he asked when Tony was slumped against him, cuddled close with his face in Bucky's neck.

"Firm yes," Tony laughed, and Bucky picked him up, spinning him around. Fuck yeah. Steve was gonna be so fucking smug but--worth it. So worth it.

 

**Author's Note:**

> -waves a while flag- I'm the worst I literally finished and posted this on the 27th orz


End file.
